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Dust Bowl
A small map based on the historical drought of the 1930's, which lasted over 6 years and devastated parts of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. 36 total regions, including 12 regions in the center of the map which automatically decay by -1 troop per round. There are six bonus zones, ranging from +2 troops for Nebraska to +6 for Texas. This map can be played with almost any settings, but is fairly small and therefore probably less appropriate for 6 to 8 player games. Any kind of spoils will work well with the map, but no spoils could result in a very low troop count and therefore become very "intensity cube" dependent due to the loss of troops to decay on the dust bowl regions in the center. For team games, 4 player doubles are excellent whereas triples and 6 player doubles less so due to the small region count. Quadruples and 8 player doubles are not recommended as the game will probably be decided in round 1. Features *Decay 12 regions in the center will automatically decay by -1 troop per round. Bonus zones Settings Flat rate, nuclear and no spoils The only easy bonus zone to hold is Nebraska with a single entry point. Colorado and Kansas appear to be easy but may be hard to hold due to the -1 troop decay on two entry points. As a result, if Nebraska is not immediately available, the focus generally will be on gradually building a safe area behind your front lines, while trying to increase your region count to 12 or more. Generally if a bonus zone other than Nebraska is held it will be immediately broken so conserve forces before trying to hold the entry points strongly. It is also good to note that all entry points to bonus zones are in the natural north-south movement path making holding them even more difficult. When building up a force, stay on the edge of the Dust Bowl and bide your time until it is ready to inflict a devastating blow! Be aware that a well timed nuke could spoil your plan if playing with nuclear spoils. Escalating Regions with a lot of reach: No Man's Land, which controls access to 7 different regions and Wichita, which touches all regions in Kansas. Important bottlenecks are: Imperial, which is the only access to Nebraska. There are no true dead ends, as all regions touch at least 2 others, but all of Nebraska is close as are Kansas City and Topeka. No regions are particularly difficult to access. The map is too small for 6 or more players. It will work well for both standard and terminator settings, and with or without fog. As mentioned above Fog of War generally has very little impact on such a small map. Reinforcements Unlimited reinforcements are less unbalancing on small maps such as this compared to larger maps, but they do enable the player to salvage many more troops from the effects of decay on stacks of 2 or more in the initial turn of the game. Chained and adjacent reinforcements both work well for the map as it is relatively open. 1v1 Each player starts with 12 regions. As a result the first goal is to reduce your opponent to 11 regions and a drop of 3 troops. The easiest bonus zone to hold is Nebraska, with only one entry point (Imperial). All other bonus zones have multiple entry points (Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico with two entry points each and Oklahoma and Texas with three entry points each) and are therefore much harder to hold. Due to the -1 decay on each of the border regions, bonus zones are easier to hold by clearing the opponent away from those borders than by stacking on the borders. In practice it is rarely necessary to defend all entry points especially if your opponent doesn't hold any bonus zones and receives only a +3 troop bonus per round. Any type of spoils work well on this map; however, if using flat rate, be aware that an early mixed set of spoils will probably result in a win because of the small number of regions combined with the decay resulting in very small total troop amounts. Fog of war is much less important on a small map, and decay provides partial information in the game log as to location of unseen enemies. Fog of war will not significantly affect game play on this map. Team games The goal for this map in any team game is, due to the small map size, quick elimination of one member of the other team. Assessment of where neutral troops that block off a player is key to determining the target, as is the order in which each player takes his turn. Bonus zones other than Nebraska will be extremely difficult to hold. For doubles, each player will receive a starting drop of 9 regions. In triples and 6 player doubles, each player will drop 6 regions, while in quads or 8 player doubles each player will drop just 4 regions. As a result 6 player doubles, 8 player doubles, and quad games are not recommended as the game can be over very quickly without a chance to employ any strategy.